Surveillance captures men dumping felled tree on roadside

A hidden surveillance camera landed Piotr Ostrowski, of Farnham Road, Slough, in court for an offence of fly tipping. The 31-year-old man made a plea of guilty to the offence at High Wycombe Magistrates Court on 22 August.

The court heard that at about 8pm on 16 April 2018, Ostrowski and another man were caught on a surveillance camera dumping a felled tree on Andrew Hill Lane, Hedgerley, out of the back of a van. Enforcement officers working on behalf of the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire traced Ostrowski via the van's registration, but the second offender has not been identified.

On 21 June 2018, Ostrowski was interviewed at Slough Police Station, and admitted depositing the tree as a favour for a friend. He claimed he had first gone to the household recycling centre but found it closed. Although fully aware it was wrong, he made the decision to dump the tree on the roadside.

Giving credit for an early guilty plea, the magistrates fined Ostrowski £990, ordered him to pay £1,045 towards the council's costs and imposed a victim surcharge of £99. The total amount due was therefore £2,134.

In August 2018, the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire launched its SCRAP Flytipping campaign, which urges anyone- individuals or businesses- to ensure that they act on their legal duty of care to ensure that anyone who takes their waste away is registered and bona fide.

Since November 2003, the Waste Partnership has secured over 660 fly tipping convictions and a resulting significant saving to the Buckinghamshire taxpayer, principally through costs imposed by the court to cover removal and disposal costs. In Buckinghamshire fly tippers are 16 times more likely to be successfully prosecuted than in England as a whole.